Quickies: Anita Sarkeesian’s Haters, The “Whiteness” of Public Radio Voices, and Walking can Help With Depression

• Here’s what Anita Sarkeesian’s harassers do with the rest of their Twitter time – “As it turns out, some of the most direct threats come from throwaway accounts, or ones that have been suspended. But some of them are extant, long-running feeds from people who… well, it’s hard to say that they have regular lives, or passions, because their timelines are mostly just racist or homophobic jokes and insults. But if you trawl deep enough, little pieces of normality peek out. And it makes everything all the more frustrating.”
• Mad Men: Inside the Men’s Rights Movement—and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned – “For some, the “manosphere” offers a place to air real grievances about issues such as bias in family courts or sexual abuse suffered by men. But it also has spawned a network of activists and sites that take Farrell’s ideology in a disturbing direction. Men’s rights forums on sites like 4chan and Reddit are awash in misogyny and anti-feminist vitriol. Participants argue that false allegations of rape and domestic abuse are rampant, or that shelters for battered women are a financial scam. Others rail against women for being independent or sexually promiscuous.”
• Three Body Hacks You Shouldn’t Try at Home – “To improve themselves, a growing number of people are going beyond meditation or exercise. These brave pioneers are trying to hack their bodies with bacteria, special diets, and even electrical zaps.” It’s mostly just clickbait, but I liked the one about the eyes.
• Is There A #PubRadioVoice That Sounds Like America? – “Chenjerai Kumanyika, a professor at Clemson University and aspiring public radio journalist, sparked a challenging conversation with his commentary about the “whiteness” of public radio voices. We hosted a Twitter chat about his essay and invited listeners and public radio professionals to share their thoughts using #PubRadioVoice.”
• Carl Djerassi, 91, a Creator of the Birth Control Pill, Dies – “Dr. Djerassi wrote books, plays and 1,200 scientific articles; taught at universities for five decades; created an artists’ colony in California; and obtained a patent on the first antihistamine. His work on the science of birth control helped engender enormous controversies and social changes, altering sexual and reproductive practices, family economics and the working lives of millions of women around the world.” From Courtney.
• Regular Walking Can Help Ease Depression – “Women who averaged 150 minutes of moderate exercise (golf, tennis, aerobics classes, swimming, or line-dancing) or 200 minutes of walking every week had more energy, socialized more, felt better emotionally, and weren’t as limited by their depression when researchers followed up after three years. They also had less pain and did better physically, although the psychological benefit was greater.” From Amy.
• The biggest myth about vaccine deniers: That they’re all a bunch of hippie liberals – “We shouldn’t leap from this evidence to the assumption that refusing vaccinations is a special phenomenon driven by the ideology of the political left. There are also religious groups with low vaccination rates that have seen measles outbreaks, for instance, such as the Amish in Ohio and Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn – not groups that you could reasonably call “left wing.” And then, there’s rejection of the HPV vaccine in particular, which tends to be associated with the religious right.”

BONUS: saved by the bell hooks (from Ray). You need to see this mashup.

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